


Finding Her Again

by snowzone5



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Mileven, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-16
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-02 03:23:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 12,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20269210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snowzone5/pseuds/snowzone5
Summary: Dr. Jane Ives has a new patient. He claims to visit an alternate reality. Jane sets out to prove the reality he visits is not real. As their therapy sessions go along she finds he knows things about her he shouldn't know. She gets caught up in a conspiracy. Through it all her patient only wants to find the girl he loves.





	1. Evaluation

Dr. Jane Ives didn't just bend rules, she broke them and snapped them off completely. Not all the time, only when she needed to or when her gut told her it was the right thing to do. This was going to be one of those times.

She was about to have an evaluation with a disturbed young man. The company he worked for was going to decide his employment future based on what her findings were. She was told he was a reluctant to talk about it, but adamant when he did.

So, she was going to bend some rules. She would let her shoulder length hair down, males responded better to her that way. She didn't really like it pulled back into a bun, but it looked more professional. She would wear her black framed glasses today, not the wire frames.

And she would undo one more button on her blouse, showing just a hint of cleavage. As much as she could pull off anyway. She would also have a cardigan sweater she could pull closed so it didn't look too obvious if she needed to cover up more.

She fluffed her hair a bit, smiled at her dimples in the mirror.

Reception would have him waiting in her office by now.

She walked into her office, he had his back to her. He was tall with a mop of longish corkscrew hair. He turned around on hearing her enter the room.

His eyes ripped into her soul. She was taken aback feeling his searing gaze. He didn't try to look at her cleavage, his eyes where on hers and they were intense. Jane knew she would have a hard time looking at him for this evaluation. She would have to concentrate on her notes as they talked.

He broke into a smile and her heart thumped. Oh my… he's gorgeous. Jane smirked inwardly to herself. You're allowed to think he's good looking Jane. That's not unprofessional, that's being a young vibrant woman with a healthy sex drive.

Then she had to laugh inwardly right afterwards. Sex life? What was that again?

He held out his hand to shake hers. He didn't know he wasn't supposed to, Jane gave a quick shake of her head, but smiled so he didn't feel too awkward.

"Go ahead Mr. Wheeler and make yourself comfortable. Just be yourself ok?"

"I think that's why I'm here. Uh, call me Mike ok? Are you allowed to do that?"

Jane smiled at him. Yes she was allowed to do that.

"Ok," she said straightening her dress slacks as she sat down. "I'm going to tell you what you already know… your HR department was informed that you were... " she looked down to check her notes, " _daydreaming on the job_ is that correct?"

"That's what it looked like to them, yes."

"But that's not what you were doing?"

"Here's where you can cut the evaluation short and the company I work for can give me my pink slip. I was in an alternate reality. Very realistic, I can describe it to you in excruciating detail. Some things you will be able to verify, others not so much."

"You know how that sounds right?"

"I'm living it, you don't have to ask me."

"What is it you do exactly for the company you work for?"

"I work for a data analysis company. My colleagues handle textual data and number crunching, whereas my specialty is photographic analysis. We get government contracts, and some from… other sources. I, uh, sign NDA's so I can't really tell you much more."

"I won't ask you to breach confidentiality. I'm bound by law anyway, even if you did."

"It's not that," he said looking serious, "you don't have the security clearance."

_So this guy's not stupid_, Jane thought. _It's no wonder they are bending over backwards to get him some help_.

"Are you sure you aren't dreaming?"

"They tell me my eyes are open, and that I seem to be in some kind of fugue state. One minute I'm at my desk and the next minute I'm a kid in Hawkins."

"Wait a minute," Jane looked down at her file, "you are dreaming you are a child?"

"I'm twelve… in that… reality… and I'm living in Hawkins. It doesn't feel like a dream… I have dreams at night, vivid too, but not like this. I usually dream about the same thing."

"And that is?"

He laughed, "There's a girl in this alternate reality… and…" he gave off a huge sigh. "I'm in love with her. I dream about her all the time." He looked down. He sounded so sad that Jane almost let a tear slip out. She knew what love sounded like from her patients, they couldn't lie about that, even if they tried. He wondered if she was in love with the girl in that _r__eality_ or was he in love with her in this one? That would make the sessions difficult to work through.

She had an inkling, though, that he dreamed of this girl he loved and tried to get to her through some auditory and visual hallucination. This case was going to be unique. She was sure though that she could get him through this. He was a logical person, he needed to be for his job, so she could appeal to that side of his brain, most likely without him even knowing.

"So is Hawkins a real place?"

"I looked it up on a map. It's real. It's in this state. I've seen some photos, I recognize the place from this alternate reality."

"If you are twelve you must be living with your parents, are they the same parents… as _this _reality?"

He hung his head. "I don't know. My parents disappeared when I was too young to remember."

"Who brought you up?"

"An aunt on my mother's side. Until I was sixteen anyway. I ran away, ended up working in the mailroom of the company I'm at now."

"So you have a photography hobby, that led to your current position?"

"No, it's my attention to detail. I'm familiar with photographic techniques of course, but it's not a hobby. It's work."

"Do you have an eidetic memory?"

"Isn't that photographic memory? No, nothing like that."

"Do you see colour when you are there or in your dream?"

"Yes to both. I know you're supposed to dream in black and white, but I don't. Doc it's like I'm _there. _It's not like lucid dreaming at all. I've had that, this is as real as me talking to you. I'm aware of everything, a past, what's going on in town… everything. I am _living_ there, doc. I _am_ there. I'm not sure I can prove it so you don't think I'm crazy."

"We don't like to use _crazy,"_ she smiled at him.

"Sorry."

"It's ok, I hear it dozens of times a day."

"Ok, I'm a logical person. I _know_ this is probably not real… but doc it _feels_ real. When I'm in that reality, I love this girl."

He put his hand over his heart. "I feel it _here."_

Jane could hear it in his voice. She was concerned that sessions with him would bring this love out and she'd have to deal with his love for a person who did not exist. That was much tougher therapy treatment. One problem at a time.

"Ok, I have enough for an evaluation. I think it's a problem we can work through together. You are authorized to be in my office every afternoon for two hours. Does this sound reasonable."

"Anything to get to the bottom of this. One way or another."

"With your cooperation we will, no worries there. I'm good at what I do. Trust me… ok?"

"Ok doc, my sanity is in your hands now," he laughed… "no pressure."

Jane couldn't help a giggle slip out. This guy was so easy to talk to, you'd never know he was having serious mental health issues.

_Jane. Stop it_. She thought to herself. _You can not get involved with a patient. It's grounds for an immediate dismissal from the practice, and losing your license_.

_First things first though. She would go with him to Hawkins. Show him that he didn't know it as well as he thought he did. That would probably be enough to shock his subconscious into accepting the real world and not a false reality_.

_This might be an easy case after all. Direct physical, irrefutable evidence. That was the best therapy there was_.

Mike Wheeler would be cured in an afternoon.


	2. Hawkins - The First Session

Jane stepped off the elevator and headed towards the suite of the company Mike worked for. This time her hair was tucked in behind her ears. She kept the black framed glasses. She wore turtleneck sweater with the sleeves pushed up and slightly faded black jeans. She wanted to be comfortable on the drive to Hawkins.

The woman behind the desk had an annoyed, severe look.

She walked up to the reception desk. "Hi, I'm here to see Mike Wheeler? Dr. Jane Ives, I have an appointment."

As soon as Jane mentioned Mike's name, the woman's face softened. "Dr. Ives… Mike is the third door down the hall on the left... " She looked at Jane with an expression that said, _please help him._

Mike had friends here. He wasn't alone in this.

Jane got to Mike's office. He was staring off into space. She knocked lightly on the door jamb. He didn't look at her.

Jane walked in. Was he in one of his fugue states?

She waved her hands in front of his face. Nothing.

She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes. Nothing.

She tapped him on his shoulder. Nothing.

She looked at his face. A pair of tears oozed out of the corner of his eyes.

She leaned forward and said into right ear. "I'm here."

She stepped back, in a few seconds his eyes focused on her. He was coming out of the fugue state.

"I yelled at her. I didn't mean to. I really didn't meant to." He started to cry.

Jane quickly closed his office door to give him some privacy from his co-workers.

Mike laid his head down in his arms on the desk. "I'm sorry El, I didn't mean to. I was worried about Will."

Jane stiffened. Did he say "El"? He couldn't have. Too much of a coincidence, I just misheard.

She turned around. Mike was wiping his eyes. "Sorry, Dr. Ives, I'm usually a little emotional after I come back from there."

"It's ok. Mr. Wheeler."

"It's Mike, please." Jane smiled looked down, "Ok Mike… it's ok to be emotional after… what you must be experiencing."

"I thought our sessions were scheduled for the afternoons?"

"I had an idea yesterday, I've already cleared it with your HR department. We are going to Hawkins."

Mike nodded, "You want to show me that I don't know my way around there in any kind of detail."

"You, sir, are going to be putting me out of a job with your self-treatments." She gave him a big friendly smile.

"Ok, then. Um, uh, you're driving?"

"Yes. But I don't know the way… you are going to navigate."

The smile that came from his gentle eyes, tweaked her heart. He was such a good looking guy. Why couldn't she attract a guy like that? She knew that she came across as a bit of an ice queen sometimes, but she was trying to keep a professional attitude and sometimes it came home with her after she left the office.

XXXXX

Once they were on the road she asked, "so, what happened during your… fugue state?"

"It's a fugue state to you. To me I'm _there._ I mean what would you call that… you know… clinically?"

Jane frowned, "Well when he we have our round table case discussions, we would call that a delusion."

"Oh great." Mike said.

"However," she said and held up her index finger, "What we mean by that is a waking delusion. You've heard the phrase _delusions of grandeur_? But you'd never refer to someone having a delusion in a dream."

"Ok, for the sake of terminology, how do you want me to refer to… the place I go?"

"How about we call it _your_ Hawkins. I'm sure the real one will be quite different."

She glanced sideways quickly and could see Mike mouthing the words _my Hawkins_ and then smiling to himself. Good.

"Ok, I like the sound of that."

"Ok… what happened in your Hawkins this morning… when you were there?"

"I was at the point where we were looking for Will."

"I"m confused," Jane frowned. "What do you mean by _at the point_?"

"Right. I haven't told you this part yet. I'm repeating those events. And I'm at the point now where we go looking for Will."

"So, repeating them like in the Groundhog Day movie?"

"Sort of. When I'm there I don't know that I'm repeating it. Only when I come out of it."

"Oh, so you don't know about _this_ reality when you are there?"

"No, I don't know about me as I am now, or that I'm repeating… that's why it hurts so much when I've yelled at El, and then come back" His breath hitched.

"El?"

Mike smiled. "I asked her if I could call her El for short."

"Short for?"

"Eleven. She has… had… zero-one-one tattooed on the inside of her left wrist.

Jane almost froze while driving. She tried very hard not to draw attention to herself as she pulled down the left sleeve of sweater. She needed to cover her own tattoo.

The tattoo that read 011.

There was no way on earth he could know about that. _That_ she had no doubt of. What was bothering her was the bizarre coincidence.

"Ok, maybe I need a little background here." She frowned. Mike was looking forward out the car windshield he hadn't seen her tattoo.

"Ok, In _my Hawkins_, my best friend, well, one of them is Will Byers."

"Wait! He has a last name?"

"Most people do doc."

She smiled, "Yes but not in dreams, not for people you don't know in real life."

Mike shrugged. "So, Will disappears. This was on his way home after our game of Dungeons and Dragons."

"You play Dungeons and Dragons?" She asked.

"No, never have. But I'm the Dungeon Master in my Hawkins. I know all the rules. Not as well as Dustin does, but most of them."

"Dustin?"

"Dustin Henderson he's the bard, Lucas Sinclair is the ranger, Will is the cleric, and I'm the paladin."

Jane remembered that Mike said he had a lot of detail. He had three last names already. He knew all the rules of a game he didn't play in real life. There was getting to be a lot of detail and she felt they hadn't even scratched the surface yet.

"Anyway, I hit them with a… demogorgon." Mike stopped. He was looking down. And crying.

"Are you ok, Mike?" She looked at him worried.

"No. The demogorgon takes El after she saves our lives… and I don't see her for a year.. I won't feel that loss for a week." He put his right arm across his eyes. He cried heavily into his sleeve.

Jane knew he was in bad shape. Two thoughts went through her mind. He was in love with someone who didn't exist, at least not in today's version of Hawkins. That was going to be bad enough to overcome with therapy.

Her second thought was more personal. _Did this girl… did she even know how much he loved her? I would be with a guy forever who loved me like that. Could I even love someone back that much?_

_Yes. Yes I could. Just give me chance Universe. Just give me chance and I'll show you._

Quietly Mike continued to talk, "This is kind of cathartic, telling someone else this. Even if it's only true in my heart."

"Go on Mike." she said gently.

"After the game, we play it in my basement. The guys go home on their bikes. We don't know it then but he gets taken by the demogorgon on the way home. The next day, we decide to go and try to find him. It's raining. We didn't know El had escaped from the lab."

"Lab?"

"Yeah, she was Brenner's experiment. Asshole probably had her tattooed. Didn't even give her a name."

_Oh. Fuck_. Jane almost took the car off the road. _There is just no way to for him to know who Brenner is, or to come up with that name by sheer coincidence._

"That psychotic son a bitch, even told her to call him _Papa_. Sick asshole."

_Oh, double fuck_. The man responsible for tattooing her and almost selling her into the sex slave trade told her call him the same thing. _Papa._

Something was very wrong here. What am I going to do? Am I tied to Mike Wheeler somehow? Is he maybe, recovering repressed memories albeit in an unconventional way, and all this actually happened to him?

The answers were going to be in Hawkins.

"So we hear something in the woods. We turned out flashlights on her, and it was El." Tears were streaming down Mike's face.

"She was soaking wet only wearing a long t-shirt she'd gotten from Benny. She was cold and so scared. We took her to my basement to get her out of the rain. Got her warm and into some of my clothes. She was scared to be alone and confined."

"I built her a blanket fort." Mike was smiling through his tears. "She had a warm, soft place to sleep."

"I found out she knew who Will was, and said she could help us find him. She led us to his house. Of course he wasn't there. She didn't have much of a vocabulary. She had already tried to explain he was in _The Upside Down_, uh, that was her phrase for an alternate dimensional plane of reality. That's a D&D reference. But then we saw lots of flashing lights and sirens. They had fished a body out of the quarry that looked like Will. I yelled at her. I told her she was supposed to help us find him alive. I yelled at her. Shit. I'm so sorry El. I didn't mean to."

Mike put his face in his hands, he sounded like he was dying one tear at a time. She almost started crying herself. He was in so much pain over yelling at a girl he loved.

After he had settled down, he was quiet for a long time. "Are you hungry?" He asked her.

"I could eat."

"Benny's burgers is up a little bit here on the left. You'll never eat a burger better than his."

She has mixed emotions. She felt bad. She felt bad that Mike was about to get his first disappointment here in the real Hawkins. And she felt bad because the last person in the world she wanted to be disappointed was Mike Wheeler.

He didn't deserve that. What he deserved was to be loved by someone who loved him at least much as he loved his El. At _least_ that much.

Jane got her first shock of the day. Just up on the left was Benny's Burgers.

They pulled into the parking lot and walked in.

"It looks a little bit different, some renovations or something have been done. Let's get a booth over here."

Jane saw the shock on Mike's face when he saw a man with a greying beard come up to them.

"What'll it be folks." He said.

"Um… uh, Jane, I'd like you to meet Benny Hammond, makes the best burgers around."

"Do I know you, son?"

"No, Mr. Hammond, but I've heard a lot about this place, had try try it for myself."

"I didn't think I was that famous." He chuckled.

"Two burgers and fries please. Large milkshakes for both of us."

Benny looked over at Jane. And stared. He didn't say word. He stared. Then he looked a Mike and broke out into a grin his face couldn't possibly hold.

"Ok," Jane said. "That was weird."

"Welcome to my world. On the other hand, in my world he gets shot in the head by that asshole Brenner's men. Feels really good to be here and see he's alive." Mike stopped smiling.

"Everything is going to be different in this Hawkins isn't it?"

"Sorry Mike. This is like mental shock therapy."

"Hmm. Well one thing isn't going to change. Doesn't make any difference what I find do or don't find here."

"And what's that?" she said as she took a sip out of the coke that had been brought to their table.

"My love for El Hopper."

_Shit. Shit. Shit_. This is impossible. It's just not possible he knows the name on my birth certificate is Jane Hopper. Or that my name was Eleven for the first twelve years of my life.

Who is Mike Wheeler? And…

Could he love _this_ El Hopper?

Could he love me?


	3. Hawkins - The Second Session

"Uh, I'm sorry I if I was too familiar with you by using your first name. I, uh, didn't want to call you Dr. Ives."

"That's ok Mike. For this trip I'll just be your friend Jane helping you out."

"Ok… you don't look like a _Jane_ but I'll get used to it."

"Oh? What name _do_ I look like?"

She felt warm when Mike studied her face. He could see her look at her hair, her lips, her cheeks, and her eyes. He spent a long time looking into her eyes.

He looked down and cleared his throat. He said in a quiet voice. "Actually you kind of look like an older version of El."

_Danger Jane! This is not going to help him._ She was about to tell him the potential problems of thinking that way when his face went calm and he looked right through her.

He'd gone into a fugue state.

She took the opportunity to pay the bill, while she was at the counter, Benny said, "Is your boyfriend all right?, he looks kind of spaced out right now."

"He's-" _Not my boyfriend_. But Jane didn't say that out loud. She didn't mind any one thinking he was. If nothing else it made it a little easier to wander around town without anybody asking questions.

"You've been here awhile right, Mr. Hammond?"

"Yup, I know pretty much everyone in Hawkins. They've all been here at one time or another."

"Do you recognize my… boyfriend? Mike Wheeler?" Jane felt flushed… a good flushed, just saying it.

"There are no Wheeler's in Hawkins, ma'am. How long ago was he here?"

"About twenty years ago."

"Hmm, no, I would have remembered, even with everything that went down at the time."

"Oh? Some kind of disaster?"

"Nobody really knows, it involved the Hawkins Lab, the government, the military. A bunch of scientists. No explosions or anything like that… some people said they felt funny, and I saw at least a few people looking like your boyfriend does now, that's the reason I asked. I just hope it wasn't the burgers." He laughed.

"No, those were great. Mike was right. Thank you very much Mr. Hammond."

"Benny, please. Anybody who likes my food gets to call me Benny. Have yourself a good day now."

She sat down across from Mike. His eyes were focused and he had a smile on his face.

"Good trip? Sorry that wasn't appropriate." Jane found she had a hard time keeping a professional tone with him.

"Now that you mention it… later… after I yelled at her, I told her she hurt me. I didn't apologize though. She was fiddling with my Supercomm, that's a walkie talkie that Radio Shack made back in the day. Anyway she was able to channel Will's voice I guess that was another ability she had."

"Wait a minute! _Another_ ability? What was the first one?"

Mike broke out into a huge grin. "I, um, uh, could be I forgot to mention that. She could move things with her mind. Telekinesis."

"Mike, you know what that tells me right?"

"That it's all in my head, because telekinesis is not really… blah, blah, blah. I _have_ thought about this doc. It's so real I tend to forget about that part… and… I didn't care. She had superpowers but I didn't care. I thought she could help us find Will, but I was having feelings for her. Lucas made fun of me at one point. Saying I wanted to marry her."

Mike stopped talking. Jane realized if he ever found his El, he would marry her in a second. He was emotionally involved in a fictitious person. She felt a little sorry for him. Not that he was having mental health issues, although she was professionally concerned of course. But she felt sorry that he would never find the girl he loved. That would be devastating for him.

When he finally came to the realization that _his El_ wasn't real he would be heartbroken. There was only one fix for that. Time. And that particular fix only worked for people who could hold on long enough for time do chip away at the hurt.

"So what's next, doc?"

"Mike, call me Jane please. You are sharing very personal stuff with me, so you at least have the right to call me by my first name."

"Ok… Jane… where do we go from here?"

"It's your alternate reality, where do you want to go next?"

"Police station."

"You know where that is?" She winked at him.

His smile almost knocked her feet out from under her. "Second street or road. Beside the library."

Mike was right. It's exactly where he said it was. If his brain was creating his alternate reality, it was working overtime to make sure there were a _lot_ of details. Then again, he did say he had his current job because of his attention to details. That might be the reason.

"Let me do the talking ok?" Jane said. Mike nodded.

"I need to see the Chief of Police." Mike told her.

At the station, Jane went to the reception counter and asked. They were both led to an office. When they walked in a tall man was emptying a box of files into a filing cabinet.

He turned around.

"Dad?" Jim Hopper was the last person she expected to see in Hawkins. He was a cop in New York, nearing retirement.

"Hey honey. I just called your office, they said you were in a session with a patient. Meant to tell you this a few days ago. Long story short, not ready to retire, but want to ease out of it. Was told Hawkins needed a new police chief. It got fast tracked."

She rushed over to hug him, and he kissed the top of her head.

Mike looked back and forth between them.

"So um, Sir, are you new here?"

"I've been in Hawkins," he looked at his watch… "one hour and seven minutes."

"E-, uh Jane, is this your patient?"

"Dad, I want you to meet Mike Wheeler." They shook hands.

"I'm having some memory issues, Jane was hired by my company to help me out."

Jane was grateful that Mike had come up with an explanation without giving away any personal information, and it was mostly true.

"I don't have time to catch up now, honey, can I you call you later?" Jane wrote down a number for him.

Back in the car. Jane said, "ok, I feel like I just stepped into The Twilight Zone. Did you _know_ he was going to be here?"

Mike was silent.

"Mike?" Her voice wasn't really asking.

"In my Hawkins he's the police chief. He helped us later on. No, I didn't know he would be here. Um, Jane, I have a personal question to ask. If it's too personal just tell me to screw off… ok?"

She looked at him, "Well?"

He frowned. "Ok, I can see you're pissed at me. Now is not the time for me to ask anything from you. It can wait..."

Jane was not being professional. She intended to fix that right now. "We are no longer going to call it _your Hawkins_ from now on it we will refer to it as your fugue state. Is that ok Mr. Wheeler?"

"Mr. Wheeler." Mike said nodding slowly. "Right. Perfectly ok Dr. Ives."

Jane was stung by his reply. She knew that Mike was feeling slighted by her attitude. This was probably better off in the long run. She could do the job she'd been hired for. She felt that she'd lost her rapport with him and didn't know if she could get it back. Undoing another button on a blouse wasn't going to work either. This was a bad turn of events she hadn't expected. She had been completely thrown off by her dad being in this fictional town from somebody's imagination that had turned into a real town after all. One that her patient knew very well.

"Listen Mike. I'm sorry. I was feeling a little… discombobulated." She gave him a smile that was real.

"It's fine Dr. Ives. You weren't expecting your dad. I get it. Let me tell you about the rest of my fugue state." Mike's voice was all business.

"I told Lucas and Dustin that I heard Will through the Supercomm. But when… El tried again she couldn't channel him anymore. We figured out she just needed a more powerful radio."

"Mr. Clarke had a recently acquired one in the AV room. But Lucas said we couldn't just take El to the school."

"Why not?"

"Her head was shaved… more of a buzz cut. It…"

"Go on."

"It really made her eyes stand out. She was so pretty." Mike wiped his eyes. Jane noticed that his had voice softened. He was hurting so much.

"Lucas and Dustin searched through some of Nancy's old clothes."

"Who's Nancy?"

"Nancy is my older sister in my fugue state. I also have a younger sister named Holly in my fugue state. My mother's name in my fugue state is Karen. She had big hair. My dad's name in the fugue state is Ted. In my fugue state…"

"Cut the shit, you don't need to be sarcastic." Jane was going to be tough on him to get him back to the issue at hand.

"I'm merely following your suggestion by calling it a fugue state. It's a fugue state to you. To me it's reality when I'm there. Yeah it might be in my head… but it's also in my heart Dr. Ives. Shrinks seem to be incapable of understanding that. Two hundred years of psychiatry and apparently there are no new ideas allowed. They've learned everything there is to know about the human mind. Hmmph, great science it's _not_. You know what. Let's do exactly what you said. Cut the shit. Stop the car. Let me out."

"Your company hired me to get results. You are basically my ward and under my supervision."

"Screw that. I quit. Ta da. I'm now on my own. I'll call my company give them formal notice. You are hereby relieved of duty, Dr. Ives. Been a slice."

Mike was mad, Jane understood that. He seemed to be taking it way too personally. If he quit, she actually _was_ relieved of duty. She hated doing that on bad terms though.

_Let's face it Jane. What's really bothering you is not having any further contact with him._

"This is gonna hurt."

"What is," Jane said, now in a dour mood.

"Jumping out of a moving car to get out of it."

Jane pulled over to the side of the road. Mike had been staring at the floor and not paying any attention to where they were.

He looked at her. "Sorry it didn't work out Dr. Ives. It's not you. It's me." He opened the door while still looking at her.

"One block up is Melvald's General store. They carry everything. By the way, Is that blue bracelet Sara's hair band that your dad gave you?"

He got out and closed the door a little more forcefully than it required.

Jane was in shock. There just wasn't anyway for him to know… _What was going on here? This went way beyond coincidence. His fugue state… _the phrase left a bitter taste in her mouth now_… his reality isn't real. At least not completely. Something_ _ is__ going on here._

Mike had known about her dad, her shaved head, and now Sara's hair band. Was he psychic? Jane's training ruled out that kind of thing… and that kind of thing is what had pissed off Mike. He hadn't predicted anything and gave no signs of psychic powers. Although his El... Jane let out a sharp cry. _His _El.

For the first time in her life Jane Ives wished she was still El Hopper. But there were just too many painful memories associated with her first name. That why she'd had it changed. She hated changing her last name too, but her dad said it was safer. He'd told her he was till her dad, would still protect and would always love her.

And now, maybe the the only chance she had of finding out what was going on and just got out of the car. He was in love with some other version of her from his childhood, or alternate reality... where ever he went. The ache that had started in her heart was growing. She would never find out if she had any chance of being _his _El Hopper. The one he knew in _this reality_. The one he could love with the ferocity he'd shown… and that she could love back just as fiercely.

Jane put her face in her hands and cried.


	4. Mirkwood

_Stop being a crybaby, Jane_. She thought to herself. _It's not like the two of you were starting a relationship. Remember, he's your patient and you are a professional, he had a perfect right to discontinue treatment with you, even if he hasn't quit his job. You would have stop all treatment and remove yourself from his case. Even then it was bad form to do that._

Jane half laughed. It was done all the time on TV and movies. Real life was a little different.

_Did she really think he would want to be with her? He was in love with someone else. Someone he could never be with._

She drove back to the police station to see if her dad was still there.

The desk seargent from earlier was still there and waved her through to her dad's office.

She took one look at her dad and started bawling.

He quickly came around from behind his desk and gathered her in his arms, "What is it honey?"

"I let him down." She managed to squeak out.

"Who?"

"Mike."

"Your patient? How did you do that? What could you have done that would make you feel that way?

"I didn't believe him."

"It's not up to you to believe your patients though, is it honey?"

"No…" she said in a small voice. If she didn't feel like shit she would have been infuriated with him that he was making sense.

"He can't be the first patient you've had that said things that weren't real."

"I know dad, but he knows things about me that he shouldn't know, now I'm not sure."

"What kind of things?"

"He knows about you, about my name, Eleven, about Brenner. He knows… " She hooked her finger into the blue hair band on her wrist, "and he knows about this. They are different for him."

"Different? Like he's not connecting those facts to you?"

"They all happen in his alternate reality. His Eleven is telekinetic."

Hopper said nothing. He seemed to be thinking about what to say.

"You know what that tells me right?"

She barked out a laugh, "That's exactly what I said to him."

"The one thing you can't do, and I say this as the Chief of Police in Hawkins, you can't let him wander around or drive if he goes into one of his states. It's dangerous for him, maybe others."

Jane sighed. "You're right. I'll go look for him. This town isn't very big, he shouldn't be hard to find."

XXXXX

She drove to the store that Mike had referred to, Melvald's General Store. There was an older lady at the cash.

"Excuse me, ma'am?" Jane asked her.

"Yes, sweetie?"

"Did you see a tallish guy come in here? Black longish hair, probably a mess. Kind of good looking?"

"Oh yes, sweetie." She winked at her. "He's one of the nicest young men I've ever met. He bought a compass, a map, a flashlight and some batteries. He was very pleasant and quite talkative."

"Oh?"

"I asked him what he was going to do with all that, he said he was looking for the girl he loved. I'd say he thinks you're lost."

Jane felt warm at the thought. And then sad. Mike was not looking for her. He'd somehow thought he could find his El, here.

"Did he mention where he was going to be looking?"

"He said Mirkwood."

"I'm new in town, do you know where Mirkwood is?"

"I didn't when he told me, but then he showed me on his map." The woman went to a rack of maps and pulled one out. "I think you'll need this sweetie, if you're new here."

She unfolded the map and the woman _hmmmed_ while searching the map, "Oh, here it is. She took a pencil from her hair and marked a spot with an X.

"It's where Cornwallis and Kerley meet, around that area, don't go too far though, you'll be on the Lab property, it's surrounded by a fence. The Lab people aren't not very nice. Also... " she leaned forward and looked to the windows showing the street outside.

"It's getting dark and there are… odd stories… about what people see and hear out there. Something like the Pine Barrens in New Jersey. You be careful out there."

"I will, I'll get a flashlight too. Thanks"

"I hope he finds you, sweetie, you should see the look on his face when he said he was looking for you. He really loves you."

Jane put her hand to her mouth, nodded and left before she started to cry, again.

_Was she ready to admit that she was in love with Mike Wheeler? After only a few hours of being with him? Or was she just in love with the idea that he could love someone so deeply and she wanted to be the person accepting that love? She felt a connection to him, even though he didn't know it… yet… he knew things about her he shouldn't know._

_The real problem was that he had a mental health problem. He was not going to find a younger version of her in Hawkins. It was all in his mind. A very detailed version of Hawkins in his mind. Disturbingly detailed…_

She was letting her training kick in. And that's exactly when he had been complaining about. If scientists had more imagination they could probably advance a lot faster than just discovering new things by accident. That seemed to be the way it was going now.

She had no repressed childhood memories of being in a lab or escaping from it. She had no idea what was worse, no childhood because of some deranged scientists experiments. Or no childhood because she was almost lost in the insidious market of human trafficking.

Mike's El, like herself had escaped. But Jane didn't have any special ability like El did. She smiled. El sounded badass. Any nerd would fall for a girl like that. Shaved head or not.

She drove to the place described as Mirkwood. She parked along the side of the road and got out of the car. She looked around. It was overcast. She had no idea exactly when the sun was going down. She didn't want to be out here when the it dark.

She walked into the treeline. The light entering the woods dropped in half almost as soon as she stepped into the trees. A few more yards and she couldn't tell if it was day or night. She thought she saw the beam of a flashlight up ahead so she took out her own flashlight and worked her way towards the general direction.

She stopped and heard a sound. Distant thunder. Another sound and she realized that rain had hit the leaves at the top of the trees… it would take a heavy rain to make it through the thick canopy and reach the forest bed.

It was much cooler in the woods, even for this time of year should could see her breath. It shouldn't be this cold. She was heading towards the direction of the lab. She figured that would be a logical place for Mike to go looking for proof.

The rain got heavier.

A loud crack, and a deep rumbling startled her, but didn't cover up a deep snarl she heard to her left. Wolf? There were no breeding populations in this state, but it couldn't be anything else.

She heard the huffing deep breath of a large… something.

For the first time in a long time she was scared. She never been scared as an adult. All of her worst nightmares had happened when she was younger. She had too much common sense to be scared of boogymen at this stage of her life. Some would say she had little to no imagination. She was sure that Mike believed that.

She was getting soaked from the rain that was now steady, falling from they myriad leaves that were letting go of their catch.

A loud snarl, growl, snort, roar froze her against a tree. She put her back to it, tried to push her entire body and melt into the tree.

She was paralyzed with fear. What _was_ that? She could hear heavy footsteps? Mike! No. This was much bigger and heavier than he was. It was deliberately slow. She could hear it sniffing… it had probably detected her scent… and it's next meal.

She had to run. She knew her flight or fight response was kicking in. She wouldn't be able to fight… whatever it was, so she had to run.

Something was holding her legs, arms and head fast to the tree. She had a little wiggle room. Even though she was scared the realized that it was her jacket, pants, and hair that were caught in the tree.

She tried to pull her head forward. The thump of a heavy foot. She unbuttoned her jacked. Another thump. She unbuttoned her jeans. A big thump… closer.

Jane was in full blown panic, she gritted her teeth and pulled her head away from the tree. She heard a ripping sound. Her hair. She felt something warm and wet on her head. Blood from some of the hair she'd pulled away from her scalp. She started to cry from the pain but her head was free. She struggled out of her jacket and climbed out of her pants. She had to remove the sandals she was wearing.

In a full blown hysteria, she thought she saw the twin steam of a large animal exhaling through its nose.

She ran in her bare feet as fast as she could. She was completely soaked, her long t-shirt covered her underwear but she was freezing. She didn't know which direction the car was.

She stopped in a little clearing. She was cold and scared. And she was lost. Nobody knew she was here. The nice lady at the general store, but how long before her dad got to questioning her?

She could be out here for a long time. Am I going to die out here? No sooner had she thought of the question when real fear took hold of her. There was nobody out here to help her. She was truly alone.

Suddenly she was blinded by an intense light. She could no longer see anything.

"Eleven?"

"C-Cold." She said in small voice.

"Eleven!" The voice came closer… "Oh... Dr. Ives… what are you doing out here? These woods aren't safe." He touched her arm. "You're freezing."

Then she felt some warmth, The voice had put a something around her and put his arm around her. "Don't worry, I've got you. I'll take you to your car."

She was led away from the clearing.

XXXXX

"Get in the car, I'll start it up."

She sat in the car shivering. The voice was Mike, of course. She was sure he'd just saved her from a cold painful death, or being the midnight snack from _something_ that was very hungry.

After a few minutes he said, "You should be getting warm now, but you're still shivering. I'm making my own gravy over here."

She laughed. He had made her laugh after saving her life. "I have a rare form of Raynaud's Syndrome."

"What's that?"

"Blood vessel contraction, usually just affects the extremities, mine is full body."

"That explains why you always seem to be overdressed…" He glanced at her. "Except for right now. Any reason you're just wearing a t-shirt and a scared look?"

"I have underwear and a bra on." She corrected him.

"I'll take your word for it." He said keeping his eyes forward. "Do you want me to drive you to your dad's, Dr. Ives?"

"Mike please call me… E… um, Jane. You can't drive Mike. If you go into a f… um, to _your_ Hawkins you'll end up driving off the road. "My dad pointed that out when…" She stopped talking.

She hadn't told her dad about Mike's fugue states.

How did he know to tell her not to let Mike drive? He couldn't. What was going on here?

"Ok… um, you drive, we'll swap sides.

"I can't go outside Mike."

"Why not."

"It will trigger my Raynaud's again."

"Um, uh, ok." Mike scooted to the middle of the front seat. "Swing right leg over, and then your left. That should put you in the driver's seat."

Jane swung her leg over and for a brief second or to she was tightly straddling Mike. Not an entirely unpleasant position to be in .

Mike couldn't look at her and waited for her to swing over to the driver's side.

"Sorry," She was blushing, "Didn't mean to dry hump you on the way over here."

Mike cleared his throat, "I've been in worse positions."

"Ok, we'll go to a hotel. We only brought overnight bags so we'll have to leave back for home first thing tomorrow morning. I may need to see a doctor. My head feels crusty from blood."

"It's not blood."

"It's not?" She couldn't get any details from looking in her rear view mirror.

"Tree sap. A lot of it. You'll never get it out."

XXXXX

Jane laughed once they'd locked the hotel room's door behind them. "You know what she thinks, don't you."

"Yeah, I can guess, she thinks you're naked underneath my jacket, and probably thinks I brought a hooker to a four star hotel. She tried to give us a single bed."

Jane walked into the bathroom with her overnight bag, turned on the light. She took one in the mirror and burst into tears.

"You ok?" Mike's concerned voice asked.

"Don't look at me."

Mike nodded and turned away, "Take a long hot bath. I can help you with your hair if you want."

"Don't touch my hair." She closed the door in his face and locked it.

She soaked in the tub for a long time. She got up, to deal with her hair. She hated to do it. It brought back too many memories.

When she was done she put more hot water in the tub and soaked for at least another hour.

She got dressed for bed and put on the hotel bathrobe. She thought she could face Mike again.

She stood in the doorway to the bathroom.

Mike didn't look at her but said instead, "Can I look at you now."

"Yes," she said with a lopsided smile, "Be honest, tell me how bad I butchered it."

Mike looked at her, his eyes went wide. Jane could see the tears forming already, he managed to choke out, "I found you in the exact place we first found her… and… and you look just like her, Jane… are you _sure_ you're not Eleven?"

The anguish and hope in his voice was heartbreaking. What made her feel badly was that she could no longer give him a definitive answer. She was silent.

"Jane?"

"About that," She said and walked over to him and sat beside him on the bed. "Mike, I don't want you to freak out, I want to show you something."

"Uh, Jane, I know what boobs look like, you don't need to..."

She pulled up her left bathrobe sleeve. Mike stared at the tattoo. And then he looked into her eyes. There was no mistaking it, he looked into her eyes with love. Her heart started pounding.

"Are you…?"

"Mike, I don't think I'm the Eleven from _your_ Hawkins… I don't… but I think I could be your Eleven in _this_ Hawkins.


	5. Maybe, Just Maybe

"I don't understand. How can you _not_ be my Eleven?"

Jane thought her heart might stop when he said that. "I don't know Mike. But I got the tattoo because I was going to be sold into a human trafficking ring. They needed to keep track of all of us". She grimaced at the unpleasant memory.

"The hair band is the same, and your dad is Hopper. That seems to be the same. Is there a Brenner that you knew?"

"He was a weapons dealer, human trafficking on the side. Probably drug trafficking too, but my dad would know more about that."

"What happened to your Brenner?"

"He's dead."

"Are you sure? Bad men have a habit of showing up when you least expect them."

"I'm sure. My dad shot him."

"But could he be just wounded, I'm sure neither of you would have stuck around afterwards."

"My dad uses a big gun… three fifty-seven magnum, not Dirty Harry's gun but my dad says it has stopping power. He's not wounded."

"But El, how can you know for sure."

He called her El! She didn't know if that was going to be good for him or not. She hesitated before she answered.

"Brenner in _my_ reality died of a missing head."

Mike thought about it for a second and then said, "oh… uh, I get it. Hmm, ok. I need to show you something."

"What is it?"

"Um, if I were still your patient… would that doctor patient confidentiality thing be valid?" He asked.

"It would… but Mike, you removed yourself from my care. And you quit your job so your HR department can't compel you to continue treatment."

Mike looked down. "I didn't quit El". Her heart fluttered again.

He let out a big sigh. "I'm going to break the law here." He went over to his overnight back and pulled out a folder.

He handed her a photo out of the folder. It was an overhead photo of someone with a hat talking to a silver haired person.

It wasn't much of a reach to see that it was her dad talking to Brenner. "When was this taken?"

"I know what you're thinking. Let me show you a different angle" He handed her another photo.

It was obvious that this particular photo was taken with a powerful zoom lens, the entire background's depth of field was blurry. Only her her dad and Brenner were in focus. Brenner had a tight smile going, and her dad had one of those, "I think we understand each other smiles." It didn't look like the conversation they'd just had was a pleasant one.

"How did you get these?"

Mike gave her a deadpan expression, "If I told you I'd have to kill you." Then he smiled. "Seriously, you are better off not knowing."

"Are you keeping secrets from me?" She had the sinking feeling that Mike was not exactly who he said he was, and that any kind of relationship was now on a wishlist that had been crumpled up and thrown away.

"I have been tasked with investigating these photos. You are a lead, that I'm following El. And now it's gotten complicated."

She was instantly angry, "El? El!? Don't call me that. I thought… maybe something odd, maybe supernatural, maybe completely out in left field was happening in my life when you showed up in my office. Now you are telling me it's all been a lie? You're just some FBI agent that's on a case? Let me guess, you have enough background on me to create a bullshit fake story about some alternate reality with a younger version of me. Well, good one Mr. Wheeler. I fell for it. I fell for _you_. What a crock of shit. I'm out of here."

She got up and angrily started to gather her clothes. "I'm leaving asshole. Tonight. Find your own fucking way home."

Mike didn't move. He was shocked at her outburst. "It's gotten complicated because… because I love El in _my_ Hawkins… and I love El in _this_ Hawkins. I don't know what happened, but I know you are Eleven. It's not your haircut, or that we knew some of the same people, or that you had something terrible happen to you as a kid… or even the tattoo, it's none of those."

"Oh then what is it Mr. CIA? What makes you think I'm Eleven. What makes you think I'm _your_ Eleven?" She stood there impatiently waiting for his answer.

"It's your eyes. El looked, no one _looks_ at me the exact same way. That's not a coincidence. Nobody could duplicate that. Not with eyes that pretty. She trusts me. She trusted that I would keep my promise to her. That I would keep her secret, that I would keep _all _of my promises to her.. I look into your eyes… and… I'm looking at you. Eleven. The girl I love in an alternate reality… and that has carried over to this reality. Sorry. You can psychoanalyze me now."

Jane could no longer think of herself as _Jane_ now. That was her professional name. Sure, it was on her birth certificate, all her government ID, but she'd always been Eleven. She had no nickname before, Mike had given her that nickname in his Hawkins, and he was calling her that now.

Maybe, just maybe she could help Mike, and get to the bottom of all this and what her or dad's involvement might be. She refused to believe her dad had betrayed her. He might be keeping secrets to keep her safe. She would accept that.

All she really wanted now was to get to know Mike. To be with him. She never felt this strongly about anything before.

She started to shiver uncontrollably. She was tired and her syndrome had kicked in with a vengeance.

"You ok, El?"

Just hearing him use her name… her new nickname made her feel warm inside, but not outside. "C-cold."

"Get under the covers in the other bed. I'll get the spare blanket from the closet."

Once under the blanket she thought her shivering would stop, it hadn't. With the lights out she felt colder than ever… and a little bit scared. And alone. She didn't feel safe anymore.

"I can hear you shivering over there."

"My dad use to cuddle me in his arms when I got this way…" She was absolutely _not_ going to ask Mike to do that.

She heard rustling. Mike had slipped under the covers behind her. He got up very close to her and spooned her. She was not shocked. She felt at ease with his personal presence.

"Wow, you really are cold. Your whole body is."

"I was hoping you'd say I had a hot body."

He chuckled behind her. "Um, uh, well uh, you do… and I apologize in advance for any autonomous reaction my body has to yours." He put his arms around her waist trying to get as much contact as possible.

Within seconds she stopped shivering. And she felt safe. She couldn't explain it, but this guy, who'd said… he actually _said_ he loved her. She was going to sleep beside him tonight. Her world wasn't spinning quite out of control yet, but even if if did, part of that lack of control was going to be a _good_ thing.

"Mike? What happened when Lucas and Dustin found some of Nancy's clothes?"

"They also found a wig, a blonde wig. Couldn't have been my mom's. No way her hair would have fit under it. Anyway, while they were doing that, I put makeup on El."

"You did her makeup?"

"Yeah, and… like I said. She trusted me. She looked at me like I was her world… and I guess in a sense I was. With the exception of Benny, I was the only person that had been kind to her. So we gave her the dress and wig and let her change her clothes."

"What did she think?"

"When she came out of the bathroom, she was shy, no confidence at all. All three of us thought you were pretty, but it was me that actually said it. I wasn't just saying it. You are beautiful. It doesn't make any difference what's going on with your hair."

El's tears streaked down her face onto the pillow , Mike was referring to his El-_her_ in the present tense.

Mike's voice got very low, "But you hurt yourself trying to find Will for us. We were so selfish, blindly determined to find him we forgot how much it would hurt you."

"Mike." she whispered, wanting to correct him . "I can't do those things. You know that don't you?"

He was even quieter than he had been, "Not in this reality… no… I know… but in that one, you could, all you wanted to do was help us."

She noticed that Mike kept switching between using _you_ and _her_. Could he be losing touch of this reality? That wasn't good. She shouldn't even be attempting to treat him right now. Not with the way she felt about him… and with the way it seemed like he felt about her. She still wanted to help him but maybe not in an official capacity.

"It was Dustin that figured out that we might have found a gateway, so we used our compasses to try and find it. We didn't know that El was using her ability to change where we were walking by affecting the compass needle. We followed the train tracks to the junkyard."

"Train tracks."

"Yeah, I'll take you there tomorrow, ok? We got to the junkyard and Lucas figured out what you had been doing and he wasn't happy. He didn't really trust you from the start. He didn't dislike you he just didn't trust you. Not like I did. We ended up getting into a fight, and he got the upper hand and started hurting me… well at least, I think that's what El thought. So she did something about it. And I got mad… I got mad at you again."

"I didn't mean it El. I really didn't mean to yell at you again. We though Lucas was really hurt." Mike was quiet.

"You were worried for your best friend. Nobody would fault you for that. _I_ wouldn't."

"But I made you cry." Mike's breath hitched.

"I didn't meant to. I'll try not to make you cry again. I promise. I love you Eleven." She could feel his tears on her neck. She could _hear_ the promise in his voice.

Finally she could no longer wait to tell him.

"I love you too Mike."


	6. Train Tracks

"I can't treat you any longer Mike."

"I know, you will lose your license. But the company I work for is expecting me to get treated. They think I'm actually making up the story, while following up on this one." He referred to the photos on the writing desk of the hotel room.

"I can tell them that your case has moved beyond my area of expertise, and that I can refer you to another doctor who is more qualified. Dr. Mayfield.."

Mike laughed. "Don't tell me. Max Mayfield? Max as in Maxine-but-nobody-calls-me-that-Max?"

El looked at him her eyes went wide. "How could you possibly know that?"

"That what she wanted us to call her in my Hawkins."

El had a worrying thought. "Mike… you aren't… you didn't just… say you loved me as way to get more information out of me for your investigation… did you?"

"No El, I promise. This whole thing is weird. I think I might be able to get some answers at the lab."

"From the sounds of it, you'll never get in there."

"Don't worry about that. One phone call and I'm in. You will be my assistant. Wanna play Scully and Mulder?" Mike smiled at her.

"First I want you to tell me the rest of your story. You said you were going to take me to the tracks. You can tell me as we walk."

"Oh, I forgot this," Mike said. He walked over to El and put his hands on her shoulders leaned forward and kissed her. Her mouth opened to meet his. The kiss lasted longer than El thought Mike had intended but she didn't pull away.

When they parted she put hand over her heart, "I didn't expect that."

"I figured since I told you I loved you… I should probably kiss you. I only ever got to kiss you twice in my Hawkins." Mike looked down.

It had brought up bad memories for him. "Mike, I don't want you to hurt every time you kiss me."

"It's only because my last… trip was so recent. I finally found you again. I'm not letting you out of my sight. It hurt too much last time."

El came over and put her arms around his neck, gave him warm hug. "Ok, I'm here for you now. I won't leave you again. I promise." She felt her shoulder getting wet from his tears. She hugged him tighter. " I _promise_ Mike."

XXXXX

They walked hand in hand down the tracks. El had no idea where they would end up, but she would have walked on these tracks forever with him.

"So what happened after you yelled at me again." El knew she probably shouldn't have worded it that way but she did anyway.

"She left while we tried waking up Lucas up. When I got back home, she wasn't there. That was the first time I thought I would never see her again."

"But you did?"

"Yeah, we were cornered at the quarry by Troy and his friend James. Those two guys bullied the Party every chance they got."

"The party?"

"Me, Will, Lucas, and Dustin. I automatically included you in that. Troy had a knife to Dustin's teeth, I can fill you in on what led to that later. He told me to jump off the quarry ledge."

"Into water?"

"I found out a lot later that water wouldn't have made any difference. Would have been like hitting concrete. At the time I just figured I'd be going into the water with my clothes and backpack on."

"You… you were going to die for him?"

"I guess I was. He was-is-was my best friend. A friend is someone you'd do anything for."

She couldn't look at him. Instead she just turned to him and cried into his shoulder.

"El… did I say something wrong?"

"No… you said everything right. I'm not going to spend a long time trying to figure out why you entered my life, I'm just going to be glad that you did."

"The _why_ is easy El… I think we were meant to be together, my Hawkins, or _this_ one. Doesn't make any difference."

"You really believe that?"

"Yeah, I really do."

They turned back to the tracks and continued, Mike put his arm around her waist and she rested her head on his shoulder as they walked.

"So what did Troy do when you didn't jump?"

"I _did_ jump."

"But I thought you said it would have killed you?"

"I think it would have… but… you saved me. I was almost at the water, but I felt my body slow down and then be lifted back towards the quarry ledge…"

"You were _mad_ that Troy had tried to hurt us. Boy were you mad. You pushed James down, and you broke Troy's arm… with your ability."

"You told us you opened the gate… that you were the monster. I tried to tell you that you saved me, I ended up hugging you. I think that's when I fell in love with you."

"But she wasn't the monster, was she?"

"No." His head hung low. "You are the purest soul I know."

"Did she… do I go back with you to your house?" El kept her voice quiet.

"Yeah, I cleaned you up, and I think you thought that you needed the wig… really, the long hair... to be pretty. But I told you that you were really pretty." Mike sighed. "We almost kissed… your eyes… you were so so pretty…" Mike suddenly turned and kissed her softly.

El could not imagine the pain that Mike had gone through… was _still_ going through.

"If I could get one wish, I'd wish that El knew how much I loved her in my Hawkins. If she at least knew that much, I'd die happy."

"She knows Mike..."

"After that things got crazy. Van flipping, hiding at the junkyard… eventually we ended up in the school… you had to hurt people… we kissed for the first time… both of us. I"ll remember that kiss forever… you seemed so surprised but happy that I'd kissed you. A few minutes later after more crazy shit, I promised to take you to the snowball… but the demogorgan found us… and… and you…" Mike's voice could no longer carry his words.

"I sacrificed myself for you."

"We didn't believe it, but at the time we were sure. I _never_ believed. I waited for you to come back, never knowing if you would."

"You waited for me?"

"I called you every night for 353 days. I didn't know it then but you heard me several times over the year."

"Where was I?"

"You're dad rescued you from the woods, kept you safe from the bad men. I was mad at first. But I realized he'd kept you safe, I just couldn't believe you were back again. You had to close the gate, it was the second time I thought I'd never see you... again. I was miserable, I thought I would lose you all over again..."

"But I told you you wouldn't lose me didn't I? I promised… I _know_ I would have."

"Yeah, you kept your promise. And I was able to keep mine… I took you to the Snowball. I kissed you for the second time. I don't go to my Hawkins after that dance. I just circle around to the beginning again."

"How many times have you had to relive this Mike?"

"I'm just finishing up my eighth time. Ok..." He stopped walking, "here we are."

She was looking at a junkyard where a bus sat prominent ahead of them.

"Let's go into the bus."

XXXXX

They sat together at the back of the bus.

"I don't know how to help you Mike." She was more sad than frustrated. None of it made any sense.

"You're with me now. I think that's all the therapy I need. I really hope your dad isn't working with Brenner… who's supposed to be dead, here and in my Hawkins.

No sooner had Mike said that when Hopper walked on the bus. "I thought I'd find you two here. Let's go, I have something you need to hear."

Neither of them moved.

"Let's go!"


	7. Mixed Doubles

El sat in the front passenger seat of the Blazer, Mike sat in the back. She wasn't quite ready to tell her dad that she and Mike were together.

"Dad? When did you start colouring your hair? It makes you look younger." She smirked. "You don't need to..."

Hopper gave her a sidelong glance. "Yeah, about that. There are some people you need to meet at the cabin. It'll be clearer to you guys than it is to me."

El was immediately suspicious, "Brenner's not there is he?"

"You're Brenner is dead." Hopper said, repeating what she already knew.

"Cabin?" Mike said.

El half turned to Mike, "The cabin was where I was brought up and home schooled."

Mike nodded.

He held her hand through the trip through woods, and his eyes widened a bit with concern when he had to step over the tripwire, Hopper gave El a look and tilted his head towards Mike while looking at her. She gave him a quick shake of the head and he shrugged.

El could see the cabin now and stopped cold. There were two tall men waiting for them.

"Dad? What's going on?"

"In a few minutes you'll know as much as I do. Maybe more, don't worry, Eleven, it's safe."

Eleven? Her dad _never_ called her that. She was starting to feel a little uneasy, and gripped Mike's hand a bit tighter.

"Something's wrong," Mike whispered to her, keeping an eye on Hopper in front of them. "Isn't it?"

"Yes, but I don't know what. Something is off. Doesn't feel right."

"It's ok, I feel it too."

Hopper turned around, "We don't want to be seen outside, let's go."

As she got closer El felt wrong. She could see the two men standing on the cabin porch. Both of them were Jim Hopper. One was identical to her dad who drove them here, same hair colouring.

And looking younger

The other was a grey haired Jim Hopper, and most likely her dad.

"You're my El." He said.

XXXXX

"Go to your room," her dad said, with a grin on his face. She felt a little lightheaded, she was looking at her dad, and two younger looking versions of him.

She thought she might need to lie down for a bit anyway, so she went to her childhood room. She was _not_ prepared for what she saw there.

She looked to the left of the group of kids standing there. There was a younger version of her. Her hair was slicked back and she was wearing heavy eye makeup. The sleeves of her leather jacket were rolled up.

Standing to the left of the punk looking El was a younger version of Mike holding hands with another young version of her but with wavy shoulder length hair. To their left was yet another younger version of Mike, he was not holding hands with the curly haired version of her standing on the far right.

Punk El said to the older version Mike. "You stopped visiting."

Mike got down on one knee and said, "You closed the Gate?"

She nodded.

"Did he keep his promise?"

"My Mike _always_ keeps his promises. He took me to the Snowball."

"Then why…" he referred to her outfit.

"He's taking me to a costume party… I need to get back to him. I promised him he wouldn't lose me again."

The oldest El could see the tear trickle down her cheek.

"What happened?" The oldest Mike said

The Mike not holding the anyone's hand said, "My El, is being forced by Brenner to keep the Gate open. We are going to stop him so I can get her back. The longer she holds it open the harder it will be for that El, and my El to close it."

The oldest Mike asked the punk El, "But you closed the Gate to the Upside Down."

"I closed the Gate that you, my Mike, and one our dads out in the living room know about. That Mike's Gate is different." She leaned forward from their lineup and looked at the single Mike standing alone.

"What about you two? The oldest El asked the Mike and El that were holding hands.

"We were on a school field trip to the lab. Nothing bad has ever happened to us, but we were in one of the rooms when it happened."

The oldest Mike said to his El. "It looks all the versions of me have found their El. And it explains why I have a picture of your dad talking to Brenner."

The curly haired El who hadn't said anything yet hung her head and ran out of the room.

"Uh, oh," Mike said, "Is her Mike… gone?"

"No." Punk El said, "She hasn't found him yet." Her lips were pressed together, she was trying to keep him from crying.

"Oh that poor girl." The oldest El said, tears stinging her eyes. "She's here all alone, her only hope is to get back to _her_ Hawkins."

The oldest Mike turned to his El and said, "I _told_ you were were meant to be together. In every universe."

The three Hoppers came into the crowded room.

The single Mike said, "we're wasting time. We need to get there. Right where the Gate is."

One of the Hoppers had his hands on the curly haired El's shoulders. Obviously _this_ Hopper was her dad.

"In which part of the lab is the Gate" The oldest Mike said.

Everyone was silent.

"I can draw where the Gate I closed was?" Punk El said.

"We can draw where our field trip path through the building was," the Mike and El holding hands said.

"I can draw where my El was, before we got separated." The single Mike said.

The curly haired El was silent. Her big eyes wide going back and forth between everyone talking.

After the sheets of paper were gathered, Punk El's dad said, "This is even worse than the map that Will drew. I can't tell which way is up or down with these. Will had hundreds of drawings that were easier to put together."

"It's a map." The oldest El's Mike said. "Happens to be my specialty."

He took the various drawings and looked at them for a minute. He looked up, "Tape?"

The oldest Hopper left the room for a minute and came back with a role of duct tape.

Mike arranged the papers in the order needed, some of them overlapping, but clearly showed where the Gate was. He turned them over in a mirror image started taping them together using a lot of duct tape. "We have a bulletproof map now."

"We have to hurry," both the Punk El and the single Mike said at the same time.

"Shit… I don't know if we can make it in time." The grey haired Hopper said, "It's at least a five minute walk for all of us to the Blazer. I can only drive so fast to the lab… I'm sorry…"

"I have to find my Mike. He has to be in my Hawkins. He _has_ to be there. I need to find him." The curly haired El said, tears streaming down her cheeks.

And then she blinked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, there is a sequel. I have the first chapter. will be posted soon.


End file.
